REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 37 



i\ valuable food supply would be wasted daily. It is unfortunate that 

 the spawning season of striped bass occurs at the time the spring run of 

 salmon enters our rivers. When the fishermen are receiving from 5 to 7 

 cents per pound for salmon, the price for striped bass is from f to H 

 <'ents. If then a close season were established, it would mean that 

 thousands of poor people who depend largely upon fish and who buy 

 striped bass would be unable to obtain them and would have to buy 

 other fish, inferior or more expensive, resulting also in an increased 

 ■demand for salmon, with attendant increase in price thereof. 



As the great value of the striped bass unquestionably lies in its com- 

 mercial and economic importance and not in its qualities as a game 

 fish, and while under the present law the supply is not only maintained 

 but is steadily increasing, we can see no valid or substantial reason for 

 changing it in any particular. 



Wide as the range now is for striped bass, it is still confined to the 

 interior bays and rivers. It is a remarkable showing that from a plant 

 of 400 fingerlings made at Army Point, Solano County, in 1882, market 

 sales approximating 2,000,000 pounds were made in 1903. They have 

 not gone far north or south of the Golden Gate. Russian River, in 

 Sonoma County, seems to be almost the northern boundary line, and 

 Monterey Bay the southern. These fish adapt themselves so readily to 

 fresh water that it appears that the long voyage they would have to 

 make through salt water to reach other fresh-water streams is too great 

 for them to accomplish. To overcome that long journey, we have made 

 plants both north and south. The southern plant was made in Orange 

 County in December, 1903, in a series of brackish lagoons fed by fresh 

 water. This plant was remarkable for the size of the fish that were 

 transported in safety. J. H. Davis and M. L. Cross, two of our expe- 

 rienced deputies, were placed in charge of this work. They collected 

 about seventy-five bass, ranging in weight from six ounces up to three 

 and one half pounds. The fish were segregated as to size, were held in 

 live cars for thirty-six hours, and then were shipped in twenty-gallon 

 fish-shipping cans, a distance of nearly 700 miles, reaching their destina- 

 tion without the loss of a single fish. It is hoped and believed that 

 these fish will gain a permanent foothold in southern California, and 

 not only be found in the mouth of the Santa Ana River, but will reach 

 San Diego Bay. We have also arranged to make a substantial ship- 

 ment of striped bass to Del Norte County. The District Attorney, 

 Board of Supervisors, and some of the leading citizens of that county 

 wish to add a desirable fish to their food supply, and have asked for 

 black bass, which is exclusively a fresh-water fish. We concluded, after 

 having received descriptions of the waters, which range from salt and 

 brackish to fresh, that striped bass would give better results, and we 

 hope to see this fish firmly established in Del Norte County before the 

 winter. 



